ELN: The X-Men & Pearsons return; ‘New Amsterdam’ debuts

The week of premieres continues as Tuesday night brought three shows to my lexicon. FOX set loose it’s wildly successful Marvel series The Gifted, while NBC followed with family drama This Is Us. The time slot and pure laziness made me tune into new medical drama New Amsterdam. Get my feedback on all three after the jump.

The Gifted S2 E1: “eMergrence”

The Gifted returned six months or so after season one’s finale. Lorna and Andy have made the Inner Circle their new home as the former inches closer to giving birth. They are led by new adversary Reeva Payne (Grace Bryers), a powerful mutant who seeks equality by any means necessary.

Meanwhile Marcos and the remaining Brotherhood operate covertly protecting mutants from violent ICE-like raids. In their efforts, Marcos and Kate search for Lorna and Andy relentlessly. After months of nothing, a lead on the Inner Circle’s financials gives them a sliver of hope.

This hope is heightened as Lorna goes into labor, contractions causing city-wide outages. The team hopes to trace the outages to discover Lorna’s whereabouts, but they go silent. Unbeknownst to them she’s given birth to a healthy baby girl.

Grace Byers as Reeva Payne. Courtesy of Comicbook.com

What a difference a successful first season makes as everything worked in this premiere episode. The budget is vastly elevated, showcasing better graphics for action scenes. We’re being introduced to new mutants as well. Pacing was excellent and synced in to each character’s arcs smoothly. I especially enjoyed Reeva’s presence and her “the future is female” mantra for progress. And I’m interested in the struggle Reed faces as his suppressed mutant gene seems to be resurfacing.